According to preliminary information, this group of Ukrainian troops accepted DPR premier Aleksandr Sakharchenko’s proposal made on Saturday to surrender arms

DONETSK, August 31, /ITAR-TASS/. More than 100 Ukrainian servicemen have surrendered to the army of Novorossia, the headquarters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday.

“The Ukrainian military surrendered arms in the area of Starobeshevo (in the southeast of the Donetsk region). The prisoners of war have been sent to detention facilities. Medical aid has been provided to the wounded,” the DPR headquarters is quoted by the Novorossia news agency.

“The first column of the surrendering came under the friendly fire, and the second passed unhindered,” according to eyewitnesses.

According to preliminary information, this group of Ukrainian troops accepted DPR premier Aleksandr Sakharchenko’s proposal made on Saturday to surrender arms.

The sides have been actively firing on each other’s positions, Novorossia says. Several groups of Ukrainian security forces are encircled by the separatist militia fighters in three locations, it added.

The DPR militias continue an offensive in the south of the Sea of Azov. Taking Novoazovsk, the militias has so far avoided storming Mariupol, only sending sabotage and reconnaissance forces bypassing the city, blocking the road to Berdyansk, the agency says.

Militia fighters after week-long fighting have forced the Ukrainian troops back from Novosvetlovka settlement in the Lugansk region that opens the way to the cargo delivery to Lugansk, a military analyst told Novorossia.